Let's close our eyes.
The beauty about doing things that you want to do is that there is profound relaxation in your body and in your mind about the thing that you are doing.
If I were to ask you to do something that you don't inherently want to do,
Even if the task was easy,
The state of our minds and eventually the state of our bodies would make that easy task extremely hard as an experience just because of the fact that you don't inherently want to do it.
And if that thing involves learning,
Changing,
Then it becomes next to impossible to have that kind of effect because what happens with that stiffness in the mind and the stiffness in the body resisting that activity is that our minds are not open to whatever is being experienced.
So no change or transformation can actually occur.
There might be accidental change,
But not intentional,
Not conscious change.
And that's why you'll see a lot of students hating a particular subject in school that was probably not introduced to them in a way that they would fall in love with.
So they end up not liking it.
And then any subsequent encounter is only hitting against a wall.
And it's been my experience.
Sometimes convincing people to do something is the hardest task.
The task in itself is quite simple,
But just convincing them to do it,
Even if it is for work,
Even if there is all the rationale that is possible.
So all of you who are here,
You are here because you want to.
And it's worth exploring what this deliberate attendance looks like,
Feels like.
Can you take a moment and assess what the state of your mind is?
Do you feel that you're open to receiving whatever is being shared?
Are you tensed or are you relaxed?
Sometimes you would be tensed about what is being shared.
Will I like it?
Will I not like it?
Versus just being open because you want to be here.
You want to hear what is being shared.
And if it touches your heart,
You're open to embracing it,
To making it your own.
And even the silence,
The pause in between two sharings and instructions won't feel uncomfortable.
Check if that's true.
It is important to know,
Be familiar with this openness because one way or the other,
We want to align our life to this mode of operating,
Wherein we are doing more of what we want to.
And notice that this is not a function of the external as much as it's a function of the internal.
These sessions are available for everyone,
But only you want to be here.
So this speaks more about your openness,
Your state of mind,
Than what is being offered to a certain extent.
Wanting to be somewhere or not is our choice.
Once we become familiar and we like how we feel when we are open,
When our attendance is deliberate,
It instantaneously upgrades what we get out of it,
The depth of what we get out of it.
Just wanting to do what you're doing.
It is that simple.
Think about an experience in your life where you probably showed up at a party or at someone's house and you could feel that they didn't want you to be there.
I hope you haven't experienced that before,
But if any of this sounds familiar,
I want you to tap into that feeling.
How did it feel to be in an environment where somebody didn't want you or speaking to someone who doesn't want to hear you?
I'm sure some or the other flavor of this we have experienced.
Now think about what would be the quality of work that comes out through you if you're doing something you didn't want to do.
Would it require that much imagination or can you quickly feel what would be the quality of work that results if someone doesn't want to do that?
In the Indian tradition,
There is a practice to become ready to eating food when the food is served on your plate because that food is going to nourish you and it needs to agree with your system.
So you need to be open.
You need to be firstly present and then open to being nourished.
Otherwise,
You can get a host of diseases.
I probably don't have proof for what I just said,
But my heart resonates with it.
What if you wanted everything that is happening in your life?
Would there be any room for complaints?
What would that experience of life feel like if you wanted everything that is happening in your life and whatever you didn't want,
Can you nudge it into what you do want?
And somehow our lives converge towards love,
Intelligence,
Beauty,
Humor,
Connection,
Celebration,
Enthusiasm,
Playfulness,
Fun,
Health.
Sometimes you've got to work hard to have fun.
Sometimes you've got to exercise hard to be healthy.
But what if you wanted all of that?
Would doing that be easy in a way or easier?
And whatever is not converging in our lives,
Can we want that to move towards health,
Intelligence,
Beauty,
Fulfillment,
And do whatever it takes to align our lives to that?
It might feel like a lot of work to do this,
Or at least in imagination,
It could look like a lot of work.
But we are experiencing what it looks like,
Feels like,
Being where we want to be.
Deliberate attendance.
Can we deliberately attend our life in its entirety,
Right from the time we wake up to what we put in our bodies,
To how we move,
Who we hang out with,
What we watch,
How we speak,
Who we speak with,
How open we are when we go to work,
How enthusiastic we are at work,
How present we are in our relationships?
Accidental attendance only leads to accidental fulfillment.
Do we want to be deliberate?
The thing with deliberate attendance is we want what's happening.
It's very hard to change others or circumstances or situations.
It's much easier to change what we want or to try to change what we don't want.
But wanting something is way easier to try it.
Try it at least for a day.
Whatever happens in that day,
You are okay with it.
There's no resistance.
And whatever needs to be changed intelligently,
Make a note of it and see if you like the results.
Thank you.
